Facebook named the ‘worst company of 2021’ by new Yahoo Finance survey

Meta Platforms, formerly known as Facebook, was declared “the worst company of 2021” in the results of an audience survey conducted by Yahoo Finance.

The poll, which surveyed 1,541 readers, saw Facebook receive 8 percent of the total votes for the ignominious distinction. Respondents were polarized in their assessments of the tech company and expressed contradictory reasons for their disdain. Meta’s stock value has seen 22 percent growth in the past year, falling behind the S&P.

Conservatives and dissidents expressed frustration with the tech company for being overly censorious and discriminating against their views. However, progressives often complained that the company did not go far enough in its efforts to eradicate perceived misinformation.

Last September, Facebook fell under scrutiny for The Facebook Files, a series of investigative reports published by the Wall Street Journal and based on leaks provided by whistleblower Frances Haugen.

Much of the publicity around the leaks focused on the impact of Instagram (a subsidiary of Meta Platforms) on teenage girls, and the company’s alleged indifference to those concerns. Haugen also alleged that Facebook’s potential for radicalization has contributed to genocides in Myanmar and Ethiopia, among a myriad of other concerns expressed in the reports.

Additionally, the company has been under the scrutiny of antitrust regulators for several years. Last year, the Federal Trade Commission and the attorneys general of 48 states sued Facebook for alleged violations of antitrust laws. That particular case against the company was dismissed as legally insufficient, but the lawsuit is still pending as the court considers dismissing the case outright.